Serving: The Path To Spiritual Existence

Posted by David on July 29, 2001 under Sermons

Last year, for four quarters in Sunday morning adult Bible classes, we focused on the importance of Christians being God’s servants. The first quarter we focused on the fact that Jesus was God’s servant. God could send His son to be anything God wanted him to be. God chose for him to be a servant.

The second quarter we focused on the fact that Jesus teaches people who follow him to become servants. We examined Jesus’ enormous emphasis on the fact that his disciples are servants.

The third quarter we focused on the fact that God’s servants live surrendered lives. We noted that emphasis again and again throughout the New Testament.

The fourth quarter we focused on the fact that God’s servants seek to be God’s stewards. The most trustworthy servants became stewards. We seek to be God’s trustworthy servants.

Little by little we have changed Christianity. I wonder if Jesus would recognize what we call faith as being faith. I wonder if Jesus would recognize what we call love as being love. I wonder if Jesus would recognize what we call commitment as commitment.

I fear all of us have transformed Christianity in two basic ways. Much of the time, Christianity is not about what God wants but about what we want. Because we misunderstand what God wants, we substituted what we want. Much of the time Christianity is not about serving, but about getting. We are so spiritually confused we often think getting is serving.

We are greatly concerned about baptizing people. Seldom do we have equal concern about us baptized people serving. We even create the impression that people can follow Jesus without serving.

1. John 4 tells us on one trip Jesus went from Judea north to Galilee by passing through Samaria.
   1. Perhaps John stated the route Jesus took because it was so unusual.
      1. In Jesus’ time, Jews despised Samaritans so much that they rarely traveled in Samaria.
      2. On this trip Jesus did many “unacceptable” things: he traveled through Samaria; he talked to a woman he had never met; and the woman was “the wrong kind of woman”–a divorcee who was living with a man to whom she was not married.

   2. Before Jesus initiated his conversation with this woman, his disciples left Jesus at the well to go into the town of Sychar to buy food (4:8).
      1. When the disciples returned to the well and Jesus, the Samaritan woman was leaving to return to Sychar.
         1. The disciples left Jesus tired, hungry, and thirsty.
         2. When they returned with food, they urged Jesus to eat, and he did not.
      2. Instead of eating, Jesus said he had food they knew nothing about.
         1. Then they asked among themselves if someone fed him.
         2. They had no idea about the meaning of what he said.
      3. Jesus then made this statement:
         John 4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”

2. John 5 tells of the man Jesus healed at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem.
   1. After healing the man, Jesus told him to pick up his pallet and walk.
      1. Jesus healed the man on a Sabbath day.
      2. When the man started walking in the city of Jerusalem with his bed mat, a number of people were offended.
         1. To keep God’s commands, Jews did no act of work on the Sabbath.
         2. They considered carrying his bed mat to be an act of work and condemned him for it (5:10).
            1. The man explained that the person who healed him told him to carry his pallet (5:11)
            2. They asked him to identify the person who gave him those instructions (5:12).
            3. He did not know who Jesus was, but later when he learned who he was he told those who condemned him.
         3. When those who were offended learned that Jesus did it, they began to persecute Jesus (5:16).
      3. To them, the fact that Jesus healed the man violated the Sabbath day.
         1. In their thinking, Jesus made himself equal to God
         2. Those two things increased their desire to kill Jesus (5:18).
      4. In response to those people, Jesus made this statement:
         John 5:30 I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

3. In John 6, Jesus fed 5000 people starting with very little food.
   1. This all happened in an uninhabited area.
      1. That evening, Jesus sent his disciples away in a boat and went alone up a mountain to pray.
      2. The disciples rowed most of the night in the wind and waves, and did not make it across the sea of Galilee.
      3. This was the night that Jesus walked on the water in the early morning darkness.

   2. The next morning Jesus was in Capernaum.
      1. The people Jesus fed on the other side of the lake searched for him and could not find him.
      2. Finally some of them crossed the lake to Capernaum, found Jesus, and asked how he got there (6:25).
         1. Jesus said, “The only reason you are looking for me is that you want more food.”
         2. “You need to be looking for the food that gives you eternal life.”
      3. That began a tense conversation in which they tried to manipulate Jesus.
         1. They said, “Moses fed our ancestors. He gave them manna from heaven.”
         2. Jesus answered, “Moses did not feed them. God did. God sent your ancestors manna, and now God is sending bread from heaven that is the true bread that gives life.”
      4. Then Jesus made this statement:
         John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

4. For just a minute, I want you to focus on God, focus on Jesus, and focus on yourself.
   1. Jesus is the only person who ever did God’s will perfectly as a human.
      1. Jesus could tell his disciples that doing the will of God was his food because it was (John 4:34).
      2. Jesus could tell his Jewish enemies that he was devoted to God’s will, not his own will, because that was the actual situation (John 5:30).
      3. Jesus could tell the people he fed that he was committed to God’s will, not his own will, because that was the actual truth (John 6:38).
      4. Jesus could pray in the garden of Gethsemane just before his arrest, “Your will be done, not my will” (Luke 22:42; Matthew 26:39) because that was always the focus of his life.

   2. “Yes, David, you are right. That was a Jesus thing. Nobody can be like Jesus. Nobody can do God’s will like he did. Doing God’s will definitely was Jesus’ thing.”
      1. Is that your response? Doing God’s will was Jesus’ thing? What does that mean? What does that mean about you and me doing God’s will?
      2. Let me ask you some questions:
         1. How often is there a week in your life when for that week doing God’s will is your food?
         2. How often is there a week in your life when you can tell your enemies that doing God’s will, not your own will, is the focus of your existence?
         3. How often is there a week in your life when you can tell those who are trying to take advantage of you that you are committed to doing God’s will, not your own?
         4. How often in a life and death crisis do you ask God to do His will even if doing His will results in your death?
      3. “Wait a minute, David! Before any of us answer those questions, let’s get some perspective.”
         1. “Doing God’s will in the way you are talking about is a Jesus’ thing, not an us thing.”
         2. Really? Is that your perspective? Because Jesus did God’s will so well you and I do not have to do it.
      4. In Jesus’ sermon on the mount in Matthew 5-7, in chapter 6 he taught his followers how to pray.
         1. He even shared a simple prayer as an illustration of how to pray.
         2. In that illustration in verse 10, Jesus said his followers should pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
         3. How do you think God’s will is done in heaven?
         4. If God’s will was done on earth in the same way God’s will is done in heaven, what would Christians do?
         5. If God’s will was done in your life in the same way God’s will is done in heaven, what would happen in your life?

   3. Let’s get really practical about doing God’s will as people owned by God.
      1. How many days as you climb into bed to sleep can you say, “I really was the person God wanted me to be today.”
      2. How many times when you get home from a date and you are all alone can you say, “I really was the person God wanted me to be on that date.”
      3. How many days can you say, “I really was the husband God wanted me to be today.”
      4. How many days can you say, “I really was the wife God wanted me to be today.”
      5. How many days can you say, “I really was the parent God wanted me to be today.”
      6. How many times as an employee, and employer, a customer, a stranger, a neighbor, a friend, can you say you were what God wants you to be?
      7. How many times after entertainment, a “winding down” time, a “having fun” time, a “going out with the boys” time, or a “going out with the girls” time, can you say you were what God wants you to be?
      8. How many days end by your being able to say to yourself, “My life served God’s purposes today.”

   4. In contrast to that, how many days in my life are not about God.
      1. How many things that I do are not at all about God?
      2. I am not asking how many things do we do that we know to be evil.
         1. That is another discussion that we all need.
         2. I am asking do we consciously try to serve God?
      3. Is that not the basic focus of being a Christian: consciously serving God?

The words each of us as Christians want to hear God say to us are, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21,23). I ask all of us, myself included, two questions. Why should God call me a servant? Why should God consider me a loyal, trustworthy servant?

“Jesus, Teach Me How To Live”

Posted by David on July 15, 2001 under Sermons

What is the key to successful living in 21st century America? We might receive a number of different suggestions. “The key is a good inheritance.” Most people do not have that option. “The key is good connections.” I hope we are not forced to live in a society that uses bribes and favors to survive or succeed. “The key is ‘ground floor’ opportunities.” Most of us lack the vision and insight to recognize what most people call good opportunities.

While we might suggest a number of things as “the key” to successful living in this century, I think the greater majority of us would offer the same suggestion. “The key to successful living at any time is education.”

What does that mean? I am confident most of us in this audience would agree on the importance of education. Most of us would agree that there is a direct link between education and successful living. Most of us would agree that a lack of education is a definite liability. But if we really thought about it, none of us would say that education is magic. Education can create opportunities, but an educated person can live a very unsuccessful life.

1. One of the statements frequently quoted or used in churches of Christ is Jesus’ statement at the close of the gospel of Matthew. (We have no copyright on that statement. Other evangelical churches also use the same statement frequently.)
   Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
   1. You may know Jesus’ statement so well that you never think about its words or its meaning.
      1. Jesus’ basic acknowledgment is this: all authority belongs to him.
         1. By God’s planned intent and purpose, the resurrected Jesus is Lord in heaven (the residence of God) and Lord on earth (the residence of people).
         2. By death and resurrection, God enthroned Jesus as the Christ.
      2. That is precisely the conclusion Peter wanted Israel to understand in the first sermon preached after Jesus became the Christ.
         Acts 2:36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ–this Jesus whom you crucified.”

   2. Jesus’ basic instruction was to go among all people and make disciples.
      1. We have placed enormous emphasis on going into the world and baptizing people.
      2. Jesus certainly declared people’s need to be baptized.
         1. But that was not the primary need Jesus emphasized.
         2. People’s primary need was the understanding they needed to be Jesus’ disciples.
         3. Those who wished to be disciples were baptized.
         4. Baptism was a person’s reaction to his or her desire to be a disciple.

   3. To advance our understanding of Jesus’ statement, let’s advance our understanding of the context of the statement.
      1. Who made the statement? Jesus made it.
      2. When did Jesus make the statement? After his resurrection, before his ascension.
      3. To whom was he speaking? He spoke to eleven of the disciples who followed him during his ministry (Judas was dead).
      4. Please pay careful attention to these things in the statement.
         1. Because he had the authority, he had the right to send the eleven among all people to make disciples.
            1. How strange that directive must have seemed!
               1. In Matthew 10 he told them to only teach Israelites.
               2. The eleven’s mission had been to Israel, not all people.
            2. Jesus had not yet ascended to stay with God.
            3. The understanding that accompanied the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 had not yet come to these eleven men.
            4. Acts 1:6 reveals these men were still confused about what Jesus was going to do just before his ascension.
            5. All the evidence leads me to conclude that they had no real idea of what Jesus meant when he said to go make disciples among all people.
         2. Jesus’ emphasis was on making disciples
            1. If people were to become disciples, two things had to happen, not one thing.
            2. First, the desire to be a disciple would lead them to want baptism.
            3. Second, after baptism, these baptized people who wanted to be disciples were to be taught to observe all things Jesus had commanded these eleven men.
               1. These men already had the teachings.
               2. The teachings were the teachings Jesus gave them.
            4. Jesus gave this instruction to these men before his ascension and before Acts 2.
      5. Let me share a conclusion; I do not ask you to accept my conclusion; you surely can disagree with my conclusion; I just ask you to think with me.
         1. Matthew was written before what we call the Bible and New Testament existed.
            1. In fact, all the writings that are in the New Testament had not been written.
            2. The first known declaration that the same books [writings] we have today should be in the New Testament was made in AD 367.
            3. That is almost 300 years after the gospel of Matthew was written.
         2. I conclude Jesus’ meaning in this statement is found in the gospel of Matthew.
            1. This statement is the last statement made in this writing.
            2. The emphasis Matthew gave to Jesus’ teachings between the first of the book and this last statement would include the teachings the people who wanted to be disciples should receive.
            3. My conclusion is simple: let Matthew tell us what Jesus meant.

2. Let’s deepen our understanding by asking a simple question: what was a disciple?
   1. A disciple was a pupil, a learner.
      1. The disciple system of education was common in the Roman world.
      2. It was extremely common in first century Jewish society.
      3. A teacher (among Jews, a Rabbi which was their word for teacher) would select a group of men to be his students.
         1. Those students were called disciples.
         2. By their own choice they wanted to study under the teacher.
      4. The more advanced and knowledgeable the teacher, the more selective he was in accepting students.
      5. The students would reflect the concepts and values of their teacher.

   2. Jesus wanted people worldwide to have the opportunity to be his pupils, his learners.
      1. He wanted everyone who wanted to learn his teachings to have opportunity to do so.
      2. What did Jesus want people to learn? The importance of that question cannot be exaggerated.

3. The gospel of Matthew opens with Jesus’ birth.
   1. Only two of the gospels discuss Jesus’ birth, and Matthew is one of them.
      1. An angel informs Joseph his fiancee, Mary, will give birth to a son.
         1. Joseph was not to assume Mary had been sexually unfaithful to him; she was not.
         2. The angel makes this statement: Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
      2. Among his missions, Jesus came to save Israel, his people, from their sins.
         1. Israel did not think they needed to be saved from their sins.
         2. They were God’s chosen people; they were not evil people.
         3. While Jesus came to save them, many of them had no desire to be saved because they were certain they did not need to be rescued from evil.
      3. Jesus’ ministry began after his baptism and temptations–both experiences opened his ministry.
      4. Matthew 4:23 states he went throughout the Jewish region of Galilee teaching in their synagogues, declaring the good news of the kingdom, and healing people.

   2. Matthew 5, 6, and 7 is the longest recorded sermon in any of the gospels.
      1. Basically, the sermon declares if their righteousness does surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees they cannot be a part of God’s kingdom (5:20)
         1. In the first century religious world of Israel, the Pharisees were the accepted symbol of righteousness. Jesus’ statement was incredible.
         2. Jesus was not talking about outdoing the Pharisees.
         3. Jesus was talking about having a different understanding of righteousness.
      2. To have a righteousness that surpassed the righteous of the Pharisees:
         1. You had a different concept of morality, of honesty, and of the proper treatment of people (5:21-48).
         2. You understand the purpose of righteous behavior was to serve God, not to make people notice you (6:1-18).
         3. You trusted God, not money or material things (6:19-34).
         4. You helped people instead of judging them (7:1-5).
         5. You learned how to help (7:6-12).
         6. You were very careful to make your relationship with God a real relationship (7:15-27).
      3. Then in Matthew 8 and 9 Jesus was busy practicing what he preached.
      4. In Matthew 12 Jesus found himself under attack by the Pharisees. He told them:
         1. They misunderstood God’s priorities.
         2. They gave Satan credit for God’s work.
         3. They could not see the obvious.
      5. In Matthew 13 Jesus taught in parables; he told stories.
         1. God wants everyone to hear about His salvation and His kingdom.
            1. Even those who will never accept anything they hear should have opportunity.
            2. Even those who begin to live for him and quit should have opportunity.
         2. Satan will actively oppose God’s work, but God will prevail.
            1. His kingdom will begin small but become huge.
            2. It will influence slowly, but it will influence everything.
            3. Some will find His kingdom by accident, and some will search for it.
            4. His kingdom will have serious people in it and false people in it.
      6. In chapter 15 Jesus said:
         1. God is not deceived by words.
         2. God looks at and knows hearts.
         3. Just as true good comes from hearts, true evil also comes from hearts.
      7. In chapter 18 Jesus said:
         1. God values the innocent and the humble.
         2. Never cause yourself or others to trip.
         3. Seek to settle differences in constructive, helpful ways.
         4. Forgive others just like you wish to be forgiven.
      8. In chapter 19 Jesus said:
         1. In your marriages and in your personal lives, you have and keep God’s priorities, not the priorities of religious society.
         2. It is hard for the rich to have God’s priorities.
      9. In the last week of his life, Jesus’ teachings were under the microscope.
         1. As he was repeatedly under attack by Israel’s religious leaders, he kept his focus on God’s priorities.
         2. Then he endured injustice and died showing us how to live and die by God’s priorities in the worst of times and circumstances.

Israel was certain that they knew how to live exactly as God wanted. Jesus said they did not. If the eleven went among all people and made disciples, what would they do? They would use Jesus’ teachings to teach people how to live. Jesus came to people who did not know how to live. People still do not know how to live. Jesus taught and teaches people how to live.

Many of our problems exist in the church because we have convinced people to be baptized who do not want to be disciples. “Jesus can be involved with my religion, but he cannot be involved in my life. Jesus, you can tell me how to do church, but do not even try to tell me how to live.”

Am I suggesting that we monitor who is baptized? No! I am suggesting that we do what Jesus asked–call people to discipleship.

Who Controls My Life?

Posted by David on July 8, 2001 under Sermons

Control is an enormous issue in America. I seriously doubt that you could name a sector in our society in which control is not a major issue.

Control is certainly a major political issue. Who controls the White House? Who controls international policies? Who controls domestic policies? Who controls the Senate? Who controls the House of Representatives? Who controls the governor’s office? Who controls state policies? Who controls city affairs? Almost every political question on every political level begins with this question: who has the control?

Control is certainly a major heath issue. Who controls the direction of this nation’s health care system? Who controls the doctors? Who controls the hospitals? Who controls the drug companies? Who controls the insurance companies? Who controls who my doctor is and what health care I receive?

Control is certainly a major issue in congregations. Do the elders control? What do they control? Do the preachers control? What do they control? Do the members control? What do they control? Do special interest groups control? The whole concept of autonomy is basically about control.

For the last three or four decades, the overriding issue in the lives of the individuals is control. When we discuss protecting “my rights,” or defending “my freedoms”, or intruding in “my space,” or asserting “my independence,” what are we discussing? We are discussing control, who controls “me.”

A basic issue causing major problems in marriages involves questions of control. A basic issue causing major problems in parent and child relationships involves questions of control. A basic issue causing major problems in personal life styles involves questions of control. A basic issue causing major problems in congregations involves questions of control. A basic issue causing major problems in personal godliness involves questions of control.

In being a godly person, is the question of control an internal issue, an external issue, or a combination of both internal and external issues? If it is a combination of internal control and external control, what is the balance?

1. When Peter wrote the letter we call 1 Peter, he had an extremely difficult task.
   1. He had to prepare the hearts and minds of those Christians who received his letter for hard times and suffering.
      1. In 1 Peter 3:16 he informed them they were going to be slandered.
      2. In 4:12 he informed them that they would be subjected to a “fiery ordeal.”
      3. In 4:14 he informed them that they would be reviled because they believed in Christ.
      4. In 4:16 he informed them that they would be subjected to humiliation.
      5. A number of times in chapters 3 and 4 Peter used the word “suffering.”

   2. I do not know about you, but that is not the kind of information I want to send to Christians I care about and love.
      1. I do not enjoy giving people bad news.
      2. I have had the experience.
         1. I well remember waiting alone in a hospital to tell a father who came home from a job out of state that his only child, a teenage son, had been hurt in an accident and would not recover.
         2. I well remember waiting at a home to tell a father that the daughter he loved committed suicide.
         3. I well remember having to inform almost a hundred congregations that the government ordered them not to meet again.
      3. It is hard to give people bad news.

2. Peter prepared these Christians for his bad news.
   1. In chapter one, Peter did two things.
      1. First, he reminded them of the enormous blessings God had given them.
         1. Verse 3: God’s great mercy.
         2. Verse 3: the new birth which gave them a living hope that was made possible by Jesus’ resurrection.
         3. Verse 4: their indestructible inheritance that was reserved for them in heaven.
         4. Verse 5: the protection of God’s power.
         5. Verses 6-9: anything that happened would only prove their faith and save their souls.
      2. Second, he reminded them of their commitment.
         1. Verses 13, 14–they belonged to Christ to serve God’s purposes.
         2. Verse 15-21–because they belonged to God through Christ, they were committed to being holy just as their God is holy.
      3. Because they obeyed the truth and purified their souls, they must love each other fervently (1:22).
         1. If they understood who they were,
         2. If they understood what was temporary and what was permanent,
         3. They would love each other fervently.

   2. In chapter 2, Peter reminded them of who they were.
      1. Verses 1-3: knowing the Lord’s kindness meant they must not live like people who did not know the Lord.
      2. Verses 4-10: they lived and acted like living stones who were God’s temple.
      3. Being Christians made them unique as people.
         1 Peter 2:9,10 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

   3. Even though bad times were coming, they would behave in truly distinctive ways.
      1. Verses 11 and 12 said they would be the slandered, but the way they lived would prove the slanders false.
      2. In verses 13-17, Peter stated that even though they would be slandered, they would be good citizens.
      3. In verses 18-25, Peter stated the even though Christians who were servants would be slandered, they would be good servants.
      4. In 3:1-6, Peter stated that even though Christian wives would be slandered, they would be exceptional wives known for godly behavior.
      5. In 3:7, Peter stated that even though Christian husbands would be slandered, they would be exceptional husbands treating their wives with understanding and honor.
      6. In 3:8-12, Peter said that even though the times would be tough on Christians, they would be a kindhearted, humble people that tried to live in sympathy and harmony with everyone.

3. What is your reaction to Peter’s letter thus far?
   1. “Get real! No way!”
      1. “Peter told these people they were going to be slandered, but they would prove the slanders false by being kind, gentle, considerate people?”
      2. “Who are you kidding? That IS NOT the way you confront and fight injustice! That is not the way you defend your rights! That will not work!”

   2. I would hate to have the responsibility of writing Peter’s letter to American Christians today.
      1. First, we would get terribly upset if someone who knew what he was talking about told us we would be slandered.
      2. Second, we would get just plain angry if someone who knew what he was talking about told us we were going to suffer.
      3. Third, we would resent being encouraged to counter these problems by living good lives of kindness and gentleness.

   3. If you conclude this is just the way people reacted back then, you make a big mistake.
      1. If these were just “natural reactions,” Peter had no need to write them this letter.
      2. Peter explained how they could prepare for the coming slander and suffering.
      3. They were to prepare in most unusual ways.

4. How did Peter suggest that they prepare and react?
   1. In 3:13, Peter reminded them that the wisest approach to escaping harm was zealously to do good.
   2. In 3:14, Peter admitted that did not always work–sometimes people hated righteousness so much they harmed good people just because those people belonged to Jesus Christ.
   3. This is what Peter said to do when they suffered for being righteous.
      1. Do not let their brand of fear intimidate and trouble you (3:14).
      2. Seat Jesus Christ on the throne of your heart (3:15).
         1. Give him and him only the position of Lord.
         2. Put Jesus, and only Jesus, in control of your attitudes and behavior.
         3. Be ready when those hurting you ask how you can be a calm person full of hope when you are being treated terribly.
         4. Be ready to explain your hope, not defiantly, but gently.
      3. Always maintain a good conscience (3:16).
         1. Be true to what you know to be right in Christ.
         2. Live in ways you understand to be loyal to Jesus.
         3. If you do that, those who slander you will be shamed by their slander.
      4. Why?
         1. One answer: Jesus Christ.
         2. God proved in Jesus’ death if the choice is between suffering for what is right or suffering for what is wrong, God’s people suffer for what is right.

5. Most of us are grieved and distressed by many of the tragedies among Christians.
   1. Christians as a group do not do things well.
      1. We do not do closeness well.
      2. We do not do marriage well.
      3. We do not do parenting well.
      4. We do not do church well.
      5. We do not do crises well.
      6. We do not do tragedy well.
      7. We do not do sickness well.
      8. We do not do dying well.

   2. Sometimes we get alarmed and decide THE solution is to teach people “how to.”
      1. Teach people “how to” build relationships, “how to” worship, “how to” handle hardship, “how to” die.
      2. I am all for teaching people “how to” and readily admit that we do not do enough to help people understand “how to.”
      3. But if we think we will solve our many problems by teaching people “how to,” we are terribly mistaken.

   3. The basic problem in America and in the church in America is not a “how to” problem; the basic problem is the control problem.
      1. Sometimes I fear we want to teach people “how to” do everything but have faith in God.
      2. We desperately need to teach people to seat Jesus Christ on the throne of their hearts and turn control over to him.
      3. Our basic problem: the wrong things control our lives.
      4. No matter what you teach people “how to” do, as long as Jesus Christ is not the Lord in control of their lives, things will not go well.

When we combine Jesus’ control of our lives with teachings that show us “how to,” God does powerful things. Who sits on the throne of your heart? Who controls your life?

Do You Want to Know the Power?

Posted by David on July 1, 2001 under Sermons

This week we celebrate the birth of our nation. Our nation was born when our ancestors declared independence. Today, our nation is the most powerful nation that exists. This nation does not have the greatest population of all the nations. This nation does not have the greatest land mass of all the nations. This nation has not always had the greatest power of all the nations. Today, at this moment in history, this nation has the greatest power.

If we do not have the greatest population, and if there are nations that control more land than we do, why are we, at this time, the most powerful nation? Many factors work in combination to produce this nation’s power. One significant factor is the enormous past sacrifices made for this nation. Without those sacrifices, this nation would not exist. Without those sacrifices, this nation would not have survived. Without those sacrifices, there would be no power.

Each week on Sunday, we individually and as a congregation celebrate the birth of Christianity. Christianity exists because Jesus willingly died by crucifixion to make our forgiveness possible. Christianity exists because God raised the dead body of Jesus from the dead. Forgiveness happens because of God’s work in Jesus’ death. The power exists because of God’s work in the resurrection.

We can become Christians because of Jesus’ willing sacrifice of his life in crucifixion. We can be sustained as Christians because God’s resurrection power sustains us. Without Jesus’ sacrificial death, there would be no Christianity. Without Jesus’ resurrection, there would be no power to sustain us as Christians.

This morning I want you to consider two reactions to Jesus’ resurrection.

1. Jesus was raised from the dead early Sunday morning the day after the Jews observed the Passover.
   1. That first day, the resurrected Jesus appeared to several people in many different circumstances.
      1. That first day was the beginning of a forty day period when Jesus physically presented himself to people in a variety of differing circumstances.
      2. On this first day, in the evening, Jesus made a physical appearance to the disciples as a group.
         1. The eleven were still in shock.
         2. Everything happened so fast–Jesus went from the most popular man in Jerusalem to the most despised man in Jerusalem so quickly.
         3. Mary Magdalene reported Jesus’ resurrection to the disciples early that first day (John 20:18).
         4. In the early morning Peter and John ran to the empty tomb (John 20:1-9).
         5. The gospel of Luke states that the men who talked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus reported to the disciples as a group that they had seen and talked to the resurrected Jesus (Luke 24:33).
         6. The gospel of Mark states as a group the disciples did not believe those reports (Mark 16:11,13).
      3. That evening the group, excluding Thomas, were together behind locked doors afraid that their enemies might kill them now that Jesus was dead (John 20:19-21).
         1. Suddenly the physical Jesus appeared standing in the middle of them.
         2. He greeted them with the common Jewish greeting, “Peace be with you…”
         3. After greeting them, he showed them his hands and his side–he wanted there to be no doubt that he was physically alive.
         4. They rejoiced; they were excited.
      4. Later Thomas Didymus (Thomas the twin) joined them.
         1. They explained what happened: “We saw the Lord!” (John 20:24,25)
         2. To Thomas, that idea was preposterous: “Unless I see his hands with my own eyes, feel the nail prints with my own finger, and put my hand in his pierced side I will not believe that he is physically alive.”
      5. Eight days later Jesus appeared again to the disciples, and this time Thomas is with them (John 20:26-29).
         1. The circumstances are quite similar: as a group they are gathered behind locked doors, and Jesus greets them with the common Jewish greeting, “Peace be with you.”
         2. Then Jesus spoke specifically to Thomas: “Stick out your finger and examine my hands; put your hand in my side; believe I am resurrected.”
         3. I do not know what Thomas did.
         4. We are only told his verbal response: “My Lord and my God!”
         5. Jesus said to Thomas,
            John 20:29 “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

   2. The second man thought Jesus was a fraud and thought the Jews who believed in Jesus were enemies of God.
      1. Then Paul saw and talked to the resurrected Jesus (Act 9:1-9; 22:14; 26:16).
      2. Seeing and hearing the resurrected Jesus totally turned his life around.
         1. What was extremely important before seeing the resurrected Jesus suddenly became totally unimportant.
         2. Prior to knowing the truth of Jesus’ resurrection, Paul was the rising star in Judaism (Galatians 1:14).
         3. As a young man, perhaps a child, he left his home in Tarsus to study under the renown Jewish teacher, Gamaliel, in Jerusalem (Acts 22:3).
         4. Yet, after seeing and hearing the resurrected Jesus, he gave up everything he worked so hard to achieve (Philippians 3:7,8).
      3. “Why would anyone do that?”
         1. In Philippians 3:9-11, Paul gave five reasons for making that decision.
            1. He wanted the righteousness God gives when a person has faith in Christ instead of the righteousness produced by personal achievement through the law.
            2. He wanted to know Jesus Christ.
            3. He wanted to know the power of Jesus’ resurrection.
            4. He wanted to participate in Jesus’ sufferings.
            5. He wanted to experience personal resurrection from the dead in the way Jesus Christ made it possible.
         2. Notice that two of Paul’s five reasons directly related to resurrection.
            1. He wanted to know the power of Jesus’ resurrection.
            2. He wanted to personally experience resurrection in Jesus.
      4. I want you to focus your attention on Paul’s desire to know the power of Jesus’ resurrection.
         1. Paul was on his way to Damascus in the conviction that he was absolutely right in his convictions and understanding.
         2. When Jesus appeared to Paul, Paul knew he was completely wrong in his convictions and understanding.

   3. Paul had an entirely new understanding of God’s power.
      1. What power could take a dead body killed by crucifixion and sliced open with a spear, and bring that body back to life? (John 19:31-34)
      2. Paul had great faith in God’s power.
         1. He had no doubt that God used His power to deliver his ancestor’s from Egypt.
         2. He had no doubt that God used His power to allow those ancestor’s to cross the Red Sea.
         3. He has no doubt that God used His power to physically feed those people with manna in the wilderness.
         4. He had no doubt that God used His power to provide water to those people in the wilderness.
         5. He had no doubt that God used His power to give Israel the land of Canaan.
         6. Had you asked Paul to illustrate how God used His power to help Israel in the Old Testament, Paul was full of illustrations.
      3. But the power of resurrection was more than any of those powers.
         1. How so?
         2. Those things preserved physical life.
         3. The power of the resurrection created life after there had been death.
         4. The ultimate power of the physical is to cause death.
         5. Resurrection power destroys death.

2. What is so incredible about resurrection power?
   1. Resurrection power is the power of Re-creation.
      1. Through resurrection power God recreates life after evil destroyed that life.
         1. Resurrection power is the power source of God’s grace.
         2. Resurrection power is the power source of God’s mercy.
         3. Resurrection power is the power source of God’s forgiveness.
         4. Resurrection power is the power source of newness of life in Christ.
      2. Satan used evil to kill everyone of us.
         1. We each were born with life that came from God, but when we yielded to evil Satan destroyed that life.
         2. Through resurrection power, God gives us life that Satan and evil cannot destroy.
         3. No matter how much Satan hates that life and attacks that life, as long as we remain in Christ, Satan cannot destroy that life.

   2. Resurrection power is the greatest power God has ever used in human life.
      1. It is greater than physical miracles because those miracles only affected life on this earth.
      2. It is greater than physical blessings because those blessings only exist now.
      3. Resurrection power gives us life not even physical death can destroy.

   3. What is resurrection power about?
      1. Is it about money? No.
      2. Is it about material things? No.
      3. Is it about prestige and social status? No.
      4. Is it about fulfilling physical desires and wants? No.
      5. “Then what is resurrection power about? It sounds pretty useless.”
         1. It is about me becoming the person I have the potential to be through God’s power.
         2. It is about me living in this world and the world to come.
         3. It is about living a full life now and living a full life with God.
      6. To me, the Christian’s most common and greatest abuse of God’s power is seen in this: we try to use God’s power to satisfy wants instead of learning to live.
         1. Look at our prayers.
         2. So much of our praying focuses on what we want.
         3. So little of our praying focuses on what we are or can become.
         4. How often in our prayers:
            1. Do you ask for the strength to forgive an enemy?
            2. Do you ask for the compassion to care about people we have a hard time respecting?
            3. Do you ask for the wisdom to be honest and kind?
            4. Do you ask for the ability to be helpful and encouraging?
            5. Do you ask for the attitudes, spirit, heart, and humility of Jesus?
         5. How often do we ask God’s guidance and power in helping us change?
      7. Can God make it possible for you to change as a person? Through the resurrection power revealed in Jesus Christ, yes!

   4. The gospel of John stresses the fact that Jesus is the source of life.
      1. John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
      2. John 8:12 “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
      3. John 10:10 “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
      4. John 11:25,26 “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Why are you a Christian? If your only motivation is fear, you will never mature spiritually. If your only motivation is to keep your premiums current on hell insurance, you will never mature spiritually. If your only motivation is to fulfill an obligation, you will never mature spiritually. Our motivation for being a Christian must become the same reason Jesus surrendered himself to God in crucifixion. He came to give us life. We must want life.

No matter what sin has done or is doing to kill you, in Jesus Christ there is life. That life is available to you through God’s resurrection power.

“Close Calls” and Life

Posted by David on June 24, 2001 under Sermons

The statement, “I had a close call,” is commonly associated with a near death experience. When we survive a traumatic event that could have killed us, we marvel that we survived the “close call.” It might be a car wreck. It might be a fire. It might be a disease. It might be a crime. It might be a natural disaster. Whatever it is, it almost killed us–and we know it! We know we could be dead–maybe even think we should be dead.

Many who experience a “close call” find life changes in profound ways because of the experience. Before our close call, we never truly understood, “I could die.” The experience made us fully aware of the fact, “I can die.” We were a “quarter of an inch” from death. We looked death “in the eye.” The experience forever changed the way we look at life and life’s purpose.

How does a “close call” experience change the way a person sees life? “Close call” experiences change our concept of life by introducing us to the reality of our own death. What was important becomes unimportant. What was unimportant becomes important. What was powerful becomes weak. What was weak becomes powerful. Our whole view of life changes.

Christian development and spiritual maturity truly depend on the person becoming aware of a “close call.”

1. This is a difficult realization for people to understand.
   1. Most of us do not question “the friendly world” concept of life.
      1. All of us would say it is “a dangerous world out there.”
         1. Christian parents feel a deep, sharp desire to protect our children from the dangers “out there.”
            1. We want to protect them from drugs.
            2. We want to protect them from alcohol.
            3. We want to protect them from sexual activity.
            4. We want to protect them from evil influences.
         2. But all the things we want to protect them from are “out there.”
      2. If we can just keep our children and the people we love from the bad forces “out there,” then they will be all right.
      3. It is a “friendly world;” “out there” is just dangerous.
         1. Our world is controlled by good, not by powerful influences of evil.
         2. Evil exist, but it is a minor influence in “our world.”
         3. None of us are in any real danger because of evil.

   2. With our “friendly world” view, being religious actually can blind us to the dangers.
      1. “He is doing okay; he goes to church regularly.”
      2. “She is doing all right; she was baptized a couple of years ago.”
      3. “Oh, he is struggling with some personal problems right now, but he will work his way through it. He is at church every Sunday.”
      4. “Oh, she let some things get her down, but she will bounce back. She is at church every Sunday.”

   3. Experiencing a “close call” with evil has little to do with our conversion.
      1. Jesus’ crucifixion has little to do with our conversion; it is just a fact that we need to acknowledge.
      2. Jesus’ resurrection has little to do with our conversion; it is just a fact the we need to acknowledge.
      3. “I did not need to be rescued from anything; I just needed some correct religion in my life.”
      4. “I did not have an urgent need for forgiveness; I just needed some correct religion in my life.”
      5. “I did not need to be saved from anything; I just needed to be a member of the church.”
      6. “There were no real ‘dangers’ I needed to escape; I just needed to respond to God by doing the right things.”
      7. When our conversion motivations have no awareness of the “close call,” becoming a Christian has little to do with seeing the power of evil in our lives, little to do with the death evil causes.

2. Most of us are familiar with Paul’s conversion (Acts 9:1-19; 22:1-21).
   1. He was on his way to Damascus, Syria, to find and arrest Jewish Christians who might be worshipping in the Jewish synagogue in Damascus.
      1. His intention was to return these Jewish Christians to Jerusalem for trial and imprisonment.
      2. Before his trip, Paul viewed the dead Jesus as the greatest immediate danger facing Judaism.
      3. His goal was simple: destroy Christianity by destroying Jews who believed in Jesus; “nip it in the bud.”
      4. He was destroying Christians for God as a righteous act.

   2. On that trip the resurrected Jesus appeared to him and talked to him.
      1. He asked Paul why he was persecuting him.
      2. Paul knew immediately that he was 100% wrong.
      3. He knew immediately Jesus came from God.
      4. He knew immediately that he misunderstood the crucifixion.
      5. He knew immediately that the resurrection really happened.
      6. And Paul knew immediately that he was a dead man because his past acts violently opposed God.
      7. Paul was right about Jesus’ identity, Jesus’ crucifixion, and Jesus’ resurrection, but he was wrong about being a dead man.
         1. In Jesus there was and is forgiveness.
         2. Being forgiven of violent acts against Christians forever changed his life.
         3. Paul never forgot how close he was to death.
         4. Paul wanted everyone to know what he knew about Jesus, about Jesus’ crucifixion, about Jesus’ resurrection.

3. Years later on a trip in the Roman province of Galatia he shared the reality of Jesus’ forgiveness with people in a number of towns.
   1. Most of the people who became Christians were not Jews.
      1. Some Jewish Christians did not like the fact that Paul converted these people.
      2. So they made a trip to the same places and told those Christians they were not forgiven, and could not be forgiven unless they first converted to Judaism.
      3. Many of these new Christians in Galatia were deceived.
      4. They believed salvation came through Judaism, not Jesus.

   2. When Paul heard about their change, he was extremely upset and wrote these people a letter. We call the letter Galatians.
      1. Paul said many things to them, but he made three points about Jesus’ crucifixion that I want you to see and understand.
      2. By his own choice, he shared crucifixion with Jesus.
         Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
      3. How could this violent man who worked so hard to destroy Christianity become one of the leading spokesman for Christianity?
      4. Paul explained how that happened: “When I met the crucified Christ, I stopped living.”
         1. “When I understood who Jesus was and what he did in his death, I choose to die with him.”
         2. “I choose to let Jesus take charge of my mind and my body.”
         3. “Faith in the person who loved me enough to die for me determines who I am and what I do.”
      5. Paul’s “close call” changed him completely.

   3. For the people in Galatia, being a Christian involved a radical redirection of life.
      1. Before they became Christians, it was perfectly acceptable to be sexually immoral, to do what felt good, to worship anything they wanted to worship, to hate people, to destroy their enemies, to be angry, to argue, to force people to do what they wanted them to do, to get drunk, and to live any way they wished to live doing anything they wanted to do (Galatians 5:19-21).
      2. Paul wanted them to understand that the world is not their friend (Galatians 5:16-24).
         1. That kind of living will destroy a person.
         2. That kind of living is at war with the kind of living Jesus wants for people.
         3. That kind of living makes the life Jesus wants for people impossible.
      3. What kind of life does Jesus want for Christians?
      4. Jesus wants us to live lives that experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.
      5. Those two lives do not mix.
         1. The sexually immoral, feel good, do as I please, angry life that hates people, is jealous, gets angry, gets drunk, argues, and exists in rebellion cannot mix with a life based on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
         2. Those two lives are totally incompatible.
      6. Then how can you change from one life to another?
         1. If you try to make the change all by yourself, you cannot.
         2. The change can happen, but only if you let Jesus forgive you.
         3. Paul knew how the change happened; he experienced the change.
         4. Paul was not a sexually immoral drunkard who lived the “feel good life,” who did anything that physically pleased him.
         5. But he was an angry, violent man who tried to force people to agree with him. He hated, argued, fought people, and destroyed people.
         6. Because he experienced the change, Paul knew how it happened:
            Galatians 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
      7. It would happen in other people’s life in the same way it happened in Paul’s life.
      8. You want it so much that you choose to die with Jesus to crucify the old way you lived.
         1. “Why would anyone do that?”
         2. Because you understand the old way of living will kill you now and forever.
         3. You have a “close call” because you understand what evil is doing to you.

   4. The result is a total change of attitude, motives, and outlook.
      Galatians 6:14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
      1. “I never want to place confidence in myself or take credit for anything that happens in my life.”
      2. “I am what I am because of the cross of Jesus Christ–and I know what I was before I understood Jesus’ cross.”
      3. “Through Jesus, the world has been crucified to me, and I have been crucified to the world.”
         1. “Because of the crucifixion of Jesus, and I are dead to each other.”
         2. “And that is precisely the way I want it.”
      4. “If my life honors anyone, may it honor the crucified Jesus.”

Our first common mistake today is that we try to reduce Christianity to a religion. Our second common mistake today is that we focus our concern on “having too much religion” in our lives.

Christianity is not a religion. It is an existence. It is not a matter of having the “right habits.” It is a matter of who and what you are.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Do you understand what Paul meant? Does a “close call” with evil have anything to do with your Christianity?

Matters of Priority

Posted by David on June 17, 2001 under Sermons

One of physical life’s most distressing daily demands is determining what is important. Our lives are so hectic! Every day’s demands require every ounce of energy we have and every minute of time we have. I do not know anyone of any age who lives life who has time and energy to waste. People of all ages declare they cannot possibly do “one more thing,” and then they fit “one more thing” into their schedules.

If you are a typical person, it is highly likely that you have reprioritized your life on numerous occasions. Someone you love dies unexpectedly, and you decide that you will focus your life on things of true importance. New Year’s Day comes, and you make resolutions that should help focus your life on things of true importance. A birthday or anniversary passes, and you are reminded that life is quickly passing by. With that reminder, you vow you will focus your life on things of true importance.

Our intentions are good. It is just that our intentions do not last long. A critical need arises. An emergency happens. Someone refuses to take “no” for an answer. Someone places expectations on you that you can either accept or feel guilty. Before you know it, the immediate crowds out the important. What we feel is “necessary at the moment” takes control of what we know to be “important in life.”

When we realize what is happening, how do we react? Most of us react in one of these three ways (or all three): (1) we stress out; (2) we worry; or (3) we are filled with a sense of anxiety.

Jesus said that happens to us because we forget life’s true priorities.

Matthew 6:31-34 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

1. To me, this great deceit disguises itself as the ultimate dream (or excuse): “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live at a time when ‘life was so simple’?”
   1. There has never been an age when life was not demanding, uncertain, stressful, and filled with opportunities for anxiety.
      1. Commonly when we say that we wish that we could live when life was simple, this is what we mean: we wish we could live today’s lifestyle in time when today’s standards would permit us to live without that age’s common problems.
      2. If we lived the lifestyles of the majority in any age, the demands of “then” would equal the demands of “now,” the stresses of “then” just might surpass the stresses of “now,” and there would be more reasons for anxiety in those communities than there is in today’s American.

   2. For example, Christians can spend more effort “explaining away” Jesus’ statement than understanding Jesus’ statement by saying (and believing), “Life was so much simpler then.”
      1. Really?
      2. Day began at sunrise with no running water, no plumbing, no electricity, no form of mass communication, no coffee, no cereal, and no milk in a box or plastic container.
      3. Security as we know it did not exist.
         1. There were few ways to protect what you owned, and stealing it was easier.
         2. Since few ways existed to preserve food, survival was an ever present issue.
         3. Your whole way of life was at the mercy of those who controlled the power, and that could change very quickly.
         4. Whatever happened, the average person had little say and did not factor in changes.
         5. Life was constantly at risk, and life expectancy was not nearly what it is today.
      4. Death was the ever present reality.
         1. If you got sick, you died.
         2. If there was a major crop failure, you died.
         3. If there was an invasion of your village, you stood a good chance of dying.
         4. If it served the purposes of the person in power, you died.
         5. Your life simply did not mean much to society or the world.

   3. The common issue has changed.
      1. Basically our issue is this: how can we protect our lifestyle and improve it.
      2. Basically their issue was this: how can we survive? (That included having enough clothes to wear and enough food to eat.)

2. The greatest common reality never changed: life involves more than physical existence.
   1. God exists–always has and always will.
      1. Physical existence is just one area of existence.
      2. Physical life will end, but life will continue.
      3. Physical life is concerned about existence in this world.
         1. But existence is this world is not permanent.
         2. Living in a manner that is physically considered to be “living well” is no assurance that you will “live well” in the existence that is not physical.
      4. Total life is concerned about existence in God’s world.
         1. That existence is permanent.
         2. “Living well” with God is not dependent on “living well” physically.

   2. You will continue to exist in God’s world after you die.
      1. Your level of existence in that world depends on your priorities in this world.
      2. Your priorities now will determine whether life then is miserable or joyful.

3. Consider Jesus’ statement in Matthew 6:31-34.
   1. What were the common questions of anxious people who did not live by placing their trust in God?
      1. Their questions were physical survival questions.
      2. “How can we prevent starvation?”
      3. “How can we prevent death by thirst?”
      4. “How can we prevent death by exposure?”
      5. Those were everyone’s pressing concerns–you would be stupid not to have those concerns.

   2. We need to clearly understand the question Jesus asked them.
      1. “If you trust God, why are these your priorities?”
      2. “These are the priorities of people who do not believe in God.”
         1. In context, that is who the Gentiles were.
         2. Jesus was not merely talking about people who were not Israelites.
         3. The people of Israel said they knew and trusted God–they existed because God delivered them and made them a nation.
         4. Jesus asked why their life priorities were the same as the priorities of people who did not even know God?
         5. Those things represent their life’s focus; they eagerly seek them.
         6. Why do you who trust God “eagerly seek” the same priorities?
         7. Why do you seek the priorities of the godless as though God is not aware of your needs?

   3. In what ways should the priorities of those who trusted God differ from those who did not know God?
      1. First, those who know and trust God seek to be under God’s rule as a matter of priority.
         1. While the kingdom of God would certainly include the people who are God’s church, to make a simple equation that declares “the kingdom of God equals our accepted concept of the church” does injustice to the kingdom of God.
         2. For generations these people were told to look for the coming rule of God.
            1. Many of them identified God’s rule with the national concerns of Israel as a nation.
            2. God’s rule would include the nations, not just Israel.
            3. God’s rule would deal with spiritual realities; it was never intended to be a political force on earth.
         3. In Jesus’ statement, those who are subjects in God’s kingdom welcome God’s rule in their lives.
            1. “Let God rule your existence.”
            2. “Let God’s rule in your life be your highest priority.”
      2. Second, those who know and trust God seek to be righteous people, not by their definition, but by God’s definition.
         1. Please remember that Jesus stressed the fact [early in this sermon] that their righteousness must surpass the righteous of the scribes and Pharisees in order for them to enter God’s kingdom (Matthew 5:20).
         2. The primary objective of the sermon (Matthew 5,6,7) is to contrast the scribes and Pharisees’ concept of righteousness with Jesus’ concept of righteousness.
         3. In Palestine’s first century Jewish society, the scribes and Pharisees were the standards and symbols of righteousness.
         4. Jesus stress was not on performance, but on priorities.
         5. He was not challenging them to “out do” the Scribes and Pharisees, but to follow different priorities.
      3. Jesus said if they would make their priorities (1) God’s rule in their lives and (2) God’s definitions and concepts of righteousness, God would address the issues that were the priorities of godless people.
         1. If they trusted God enough to make His rule and righteousness their first priority, God would see that they did not starve.
         2. If they trusted God enough to make His rule and righteousness their first priority, God would see they did not die of thirst.
         3. If they trusted God enough to make His rule and righteousness their first priority, God would see they had clothing to wear.
      4. Jesus said, “Do not waste life by letting your anxieties concerning the future control your life.”
         1. “Anxiety (worry) changes nothing.”
         2. “Anxiety about tomorrow will not eliminate the troubles of tomorrow.”
         3. “Every day has its own troubles, and no amount of worrying will make tomorrow trouble free.”
      5. Jesus is neither encouraging nor endorsing laziness and irresponsibility.
         1. He is not encouraging people to adopt a “happy-go-lucky” approach to life.
         2. He is saying the stresses and anxiety produced by worry are not the answer.
         3. As he asked in 6:27, which of your can add a single minute to your life by worrying?
         4. He is saying allowing God’s rule to control your life and seeking to be righteous by God’s definition is the answer.

4. If you are a Christian, live your life well one day at a time.
   1. It is not the goal of the Christian to be more prosperous that godless people in order to prove that God is the key to physical prosperity.
   2. It is not the goal of the Christian to enjoy more physical pleasures than godless people enjoy in order to prove that God is the key to having the most fun in this life.
   3. It is not the goal of the Christian to live an irresponsible life in order to prove Christians can be irresponsible and God will take care of them.
   4. The Christian’s goal is to let God rule his or her life transforming him or her in His righteous person. In that way the Christian demonstrates the key to a full life is faith in God, not anxiety.

For the Christian, there is an issue that reflects concerns that are much deeper that “what I should do and should not do.” That issue is priorities. Godly priorities determine a Christian’s behavior. If the priorities belong to God, the behavior will belong to God. The first Christian priority is the rule of God in “my life.” If God’s rule is my first priority, two things will be true in my life. (1) He or she will live by trusting God. (2) He or she will not waste life worrying.

A Father’s Influence

Posted by David on under Sermons

If I asked, “Commonly, what are people’s most powerful influences in life?” we would suggest many possibilities. Our suggestions would depend on two things: how we look at life and what we define as powerful influences.

For those who define life in terms of fun and pleasure, their suggestions for powerful influences focus on things they believe produce fun and pleasure. For those who define life in terms of success, their suggestions for powerful influences focus on their symbols of success. For those who define life in terms of security, their suggestions for powerful influences focus on what they believe provides security. For those who define life in terms of relationship, their suggestions for powerful influences focus on influential relationships.

A second question: “What should be people’s most powerful influences in life?” This is not the same question. What are the most powerful influences in a person’s life frequently are not what should be the most powerful influences in a person’s life.

Today is Father’s Day. Too often, it is the traditional time to fulfill an obligation. It may or may not be a time to express deeply felt love and appreciation. I would like to make an observation. A father should be one of the most powerful, positive influences in each person’s life. Unfortunately, in far too many situations, a father is one of the most powerful negative influences in many people’s lives.

This morning I encourage us men to understand the power of a father’s influence.

1. For a foundation, I will use what I regard to be one of Jesus’ most powerful parables–a parable very relevant to today’s life circumstances.
   1. The parable is the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15.
      1. Most of us are quite familiar with the story.
         1. A rebellious son demanded his inheritance and left home to get as far away from his family and their influence as possible.
         2. For a while, he lived it up, and as he did he attracted people who were more than happy to party with him.
         3. Then the economy collapsed, and he was broke in a place experiencing a severe depression.
         4. He soon was in desperate circumstances, and no one cared if he lived or died.
         5. He found himself doing a job he would never consider in the past, and the job did not pay him enough to eat.
         6. One day he realized his horrible mistakes, his stupidity, and decided to return home and ask his father to let him be a servant.
         7. In his own evaluation, being a servant was the only consideration he should expect.
         8. He returned, and his father, with love and rejoicing, welcomed him as a son.
      2. Most of the time when we consider this parable we focus on the rebellious son who repented.
         1. Sometimes we focus on the older brother who was not happy for his brother to return home.
         2. This morning I want you to consider the father.

   2. Obviously, we are talking about the father of a grown son.
      1. There are four things I want you to notice about this father.
      2. First, he knew when to turn loose.
         1. When the rebellious son turned loose of him, he let the son leave.
            1. I see no indication that he let the son leave because the father did not care or found relief in the fact the boy was gone.
               1. The fact that he did not stop looking for the boy to come back certainly is evidence that he cared deeply (Luke 15:20).
               2. The welcome he gave his returning son certainly is evidence of his love (Luke 15:20-24).
            2. He did not allow the son to leave because he did not care or did not love; he let the son leave because the son’s heart and love were already gone.
         2. It takes a great deal of wisdom to know how to care, how to love, and still turn loose.
            1. The temptation is to hold on to a child that you love “until he or she comes to his or her senses.”
            2. The temptation is to believe that your control is the solution to the problem.
               1. There certainly are ages when constructive control founded on love and concern is what our children need.
               2. There is also an age when constructive control accomplishes nothing.
            3. It takes great wisdom to know when that time comes, but it is that wisdom that helps the father be a powerful, positive influence.
         3. When the rebellious son left, the father knew a special sense of grief.
            1. When our children reach the age to knowingly rebel against us, it is natural to feel that we failed as a father.
            2. It must have been very difficult to watch that son leave knowing he might never see him again.
            3. It must have been horrible to endure day after day of not knowing where his son was or what his son’s situation was.
      3. Second, even though he turned loose of a rebellious son and that son left, he was a positive force in the son’s life.
         1. His son rejected him.
         2. His son deserted him.
         3. His son abandoned the way of life that the father knew was best.
         4. If we consider only those things, we would conclude the father was no influence at all in the son’s life, and certainly not a positive influence.
         5. Yet, there is one other factor we must see.
            1. When the consequences of his mistakes and foolish decisions caught up with him, the son thought of his father and home (Luke 15:17-19).
            2. When his own decisions and actions broke him, he remembered home.
            3. He remembered home because of his father.
            4. In all he did to disappoint and hurt his father, going home was an option.
               1. It was not a means of escaping responsibility for his decisions and actions.
               2. It was an option in accepting responsibility for his decisions and actions.
         6. The important thing I want you to see is this: it was an option because of his father’s positive influence in his life.
      4. The third thing I want you to see is this: the father’s love for his son never died.
         1. He hoped his son would someday come home.
            1. He hoped his son’s memories would bring him back.
            2. It was not a control issue; it was a love issue.
            3. It was not an “I told you do” issue; it was a loving relationship issue.
            4. It was not because he “wanted to be right”; it was because he loved his son.
         2. To me, the evidence of the father’s incredible love is seen in a simple statement: when he looked down the road and saw his son in the distance, he recognized his son.
            1. The ordeal the son experienced as a consequence of his own choices and behavior was severe.
            2. That severe ordeal had to impact that young man’s appearance in every way.
            3. Yet, the father recognized his son when he saw him.
      5. The fourth thing I want you to note about the father is this: he knew how to extend encouragement and welcome when his son had been defeated.
         1. There was no “come to me on my terms”; there was a joyful reunion.
         2. There was no lecture; there was a kiss.
         3. There was no desire to make him suffer; there was a desire for the boy to know the father wanted him as a son.
         4. There was no mourning for all that was wasted; there was immediate rejoicing.
         5. Repentance had changed his son.
         6. Coming home had changed his son.
         7. The rebellious son who left home was dead.
         8. The son he loved was alive.
      6. In my understanding, those four factors made the father a powerful influence.
         1. He knew when to turn loose.
         2. Even though he turned loose, he was a positive force in his son’s life.
         3. His love for his son never died.
         4. He knew how to encourage and welcome his son when he came home.

   3. In the parable, the father represents God.
      1. Fathers, we represent God in ways a mother never can.
         1. There are avenues of influence mothers have in their children’s lives that fathers do not have.
         2. However, we fathers are God’s representatives in a special way.
      2. “That does not make sense; a person is a person; a human influence is a human influence.”
      3. I share this from the experience of years of working with troubled people who struggle with life.
         1. Persons who struggle with their fathers, who feel rejected by their fathers, who feel abandoned and unloved by their fathers frequently struggle in their relationship with God.
         2. One of the common images of God in the Bible is God the Father.
         3. When a person has deep, negative feelings about his or her father, he or she often transfers those feelings to God.
      4. It is extremely important for Christian fathers to be a powerful, positive influence in the lives of their children.

2. Now, I want to speak briefly to everyone, men and women.
   1. In the parable of the prodigal son, the father symbolizes God.
      1. Jesus gave the parable to teach some primary lessons about the power and effectiveness of repenting.
      2. A basic lesson concerning repentance is taught in the son’s “coming to himself” and returning to his father.

   2. Regardless of the kind of father you have or the negative influences that exist in your life because of your father, God loves you.
      1. God loves you enough to turn you loose and let you “do your own thing.”
         1. That is not what He wants, but he will turn loose and allow you to do as you wish and choose.
         2. If you belong to God, it will be because you return God’s love and you are in relationship with God by choice.
      2. God wants to be the most positive, beneficial force in your life.
         1. He seeks only your good.
         2. He knows what will destroy you.
         3. But He will not force you to do His will, even though it is best for you.
      3. Even if you rebel against and abandon God, God’s love for you will not die.
         1. He will not stop loving you.
         2. He will not stop hoping you by choice will turn to Him.
         3. As long as you live, he will not stop looking for you to return.
      4. When you come to him, not matter what has happened in your life, He knows how to welcome and encourage you.
         1. He wants you as part of His family.
         2. When you return to Him, He will never be ashamed of you.

One of the most difficult challenges in life is to accept love. The greater our struggles and the deeper our troubles, the harder it becomes to accept love.

God wants us to know His love is there. “Will God forgive me?” is never an issue. “Will God love me?” is never an issue. The only issues are these: will you accept the love? Will you accept the forgiveness?

Do We Blind or Give Guidance?

Posted by David on June 10, 2001 under Sermons

I do not like glaring lights. Glaring lights blind you. I had rather see than guess. Glaring lights force you to guess. A common example is meeting a car at night with its headlights on bright. I do not like that experience. Those glaring headlights blind me and make me guess where the road goes. They make me guess about “my side of the road.”

I love lights that help me see. As my age increases, my love for such lights grows. I do not mind meeting a car at night when its lights are dimmed and well adjusted. The car is coming toward me, but I can see the road. I can see my side of the road without guessing. Even on an unfamiliar road, I still can see where I am going.

I never want the other car lights to blind me, and I never want my lights to blind the other driver. When I was a teenager almost all roads were two lane roads. It made me angry when someone did not dim their car lights. In anger, I would turn my lights on bright to non-verbally say to the other driver he was rude. Of course, my act was not an act of rudeness. It was his fault. He was to blame, not me.

One day as I explained my practice, an older, much wiser person calmly said, “I do exactly the opposite. When someone approaches me with his lights on bright, I make certain mine are on dim. I want one of us to know where he is going.”

1. For a while on Sunday evening, I want us to focus on some challenging statements Jesus made in the gospel of Matthew.
   1. I want to explain to you why.
      1. To explain why, I need to explain some personal, basic motivations.
      2. I also need to explain my personal understanding of Jesus Christ.

   2. Let me begin by sharing something about my personal motivations.
      1. I do not preach just to be employed.
      2. To me, teaching, preaching, and helping people is not a job–it’s a life.
      3. One of my more sobering decisions weekly is this: “What will I emphasize in my lessons?”
      4. I am keenly aware of some basic facts.
         1. First, I am keenly aware that my understanding is limited.
            1. There is so much more to be known about God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and God’s will than I know.
            2. As a result, I am constantly growing to new understandings.
            3. I often hear Christians speak and judge with such certainty when I know there are truths they don’t think about or consider.
            4. I have learned when we speak and judge with such certainty, such dogmatism, such inflexibility that one of two things are true about our certainty: either we have not learned some truths or we are afraid.
         2. Second, I am keenly aware that God knows everything I share, and I will answer to Him and to Him alone for the way I represent Him and His will.
            1. For a long time, I was convinced there were people “in the brotherhood” who could “ruin your reputation” and destroy your future.
            2. That conviction often caused me to “run scared.”
            3. I have begun to spiritually mature to the point that I realize what other people say about me is unimportant.
            4. What God says about me is all important.
            5. Sometimes I am asked, “Are you sure you should say that? ‘X’ people might misunderstand you and misrepresent you.”
            6. Increasingly this thought runs through my heart and mind: God says to me, “You understood something they did not yet understand.” Then He asks me, “Why didn’t you help them understand?”
            7. I am keenly aware of the fact that it is not people’s reactions that are important; it is God’s reactions that are important.
         3. Third, I am keenly aware that God wants to save people, to help people, to give people hope.
            1. That is why God sent Jesus Christ.
            2. Jesus did not die on the cross to condemn people, but to save people (people were already condemned).
            3. I think we all have a poor understanding of John 3:16-21:
               For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
            4. I think we all have a poor understanding of 2 Peter 3:8,9:
               But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
            5. I think we all have a poor understanding of 1 Timothy 2:3,4:
               This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
            6. I think we all have a poor understanding of Titus 2:11-14:
               For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
            7. I think we all have a poor understanding of 2 Timothy 2:23-26:
               But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.
            8. None of us ever have wanted anything as much as God wants to save people.
            9. None of us ever have loved anyone as much as God loves sinners.
            10. Because we fail to understand the magnitude of God’s desire, we often fail to understand God’s priorities.

   3. Let me share with you my understanding of Jesus Christ.
      1. I understand Jesus to be God’s Son (Matthew 3:17).
      2. I understand that Jesus existed with God before he came as a human to this earth (John 1:1,2).
      3. I understand that the pre-existent Jesus, the being who was with God before he came to this world, was active in the creation of our world and existence (John 1:3, 10).
      4. I understand that Jesus, prior to coming to this world, was a part of divinity.
      5. Carefully follow me:
         1. When Paul wrote about God, he wrote because of revelation, not because of experience produced by “being in the beginning” with God the Father.
         2. When Peter wrote about God, he wrote because of revelation and association with Jesus, not because of being with God the Father “in the beginning.”
         3. When John wrote about God, he wrote because of revelation and association with Jesus, not because of being with God the Father “in the beginning.”
         4. When Jesus spoke about God’s priorities, God’s emphasis, God’s views, and God’s concerns, Jesus knew the Father; he was with Him “in the beginning.”
      6. This is my understanding: our understanding of God’s will, purposes, and priorities must begin by understanding Jesus.
         1. To the degree our understanding of Jesus is flawed, our understanding of Paul, Peter, John, and other New Testament writers is flawed.
         2. To the degree that our understanding of Jesus is flawed, our understanding of God is flawed.
         3. To the degree that our understanding of Jesus is flawed, our understanding of the church is flawed.
         4. To the degree that our understanding of Jesus is flawed, our understanding of the Christian life is flawed.

   4. For those reasons, for several Sunday nights I want to focus your attention on some things Jesus said.

2. This evening for a moment I want to focus your attention on a familiar statement Jesus made about our purpose as followers of God.
   Matthew 5:14-16 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
   1. To gain insight and focus, we need to approach this statement with some basic understandings.
      1. The people Jesus addressed lived in a physical world very different from ours.
         1. After sunset, they had darkness as few of us have experienced darkness.
         2. There was no electricity, gasoline, diesel power, kerosene or candles.
         3. There were no street lights outside and no 100 watt light bulbs inside.
         4. Darkness was an enemy–the work of the thief, the drunkard, and the violent person.
         5. When darkness came, useful activity stopped; evil things, not good things happened after darkness.
         6. With darkness, you were at the mercy of military control and patrols–in most situations, the military were the police of that day.
      2. The people Jesus addressed lived in a spiritual world very different to ours.
         1. In the first century, giving helpful guidance was not a significant objective in much of Judaism.
         2. I am not implying there were no good people–certainly good people existed, but they were the minority.
         3. The overriding concern of Judaism’s influential elements was control, not guidance.
            1. The Pharisees were concerned about the control of law (according to their interpretation of the law).
            2. The Sadducees were concerned about the power of material control and the control of the temple.
            3. The Zealots were concerned about control of the homeland.
            4. The Essenes were concerned about controlling their communities as they lived in isolation from society.
         4. The common view seemed to be this: God issued edicts, and if you did not conform to God’s edicts, you suffered consequences.
            1. All the Israelite adults who left Egypt died in the wilderness.
            2. Rebellious Israelites in the period of the judges suffered domination.
            3. God took away most of the Israelite kingdom from Solomon’s descendants.
            4. God allowed the Assyrians to destroy northern Israel.
            5. God allowed Judah to experience the Babylonian captivity.
            6. Do what God says, or you will suffer the consequences; the issue was control.
            7. The Old Testament prophets wrote a lot about God’s love, mercy, and willingness to forgive, but first century Israel was deaf to those voices.
      3. Jesus said the people who belonged to God were like light in darkness.
         1. For a person caught on the road after darkness (remember, no flashlights), the lights of a city on hill were welcome relief.
         2. Light in darkness was welcome relief; that is why they placed one of their small lamps on a lamp stand at night.
         3. Even a dim light in darkness gave guidance, let you see where to move.
      4. When God’s light exists in you, you shine in the darkness of the world.
         1. People see your works are good; they are beneficial to life; they guide life.
         2. They realize the light in you is the result of God in you.
         3. They know you live as you do because God provides light for your life.
         4. They credit God because they know your light comes from God.

The purpose of living for God is to provide the guidance of beneficial light, to attract people to God, to make people realize good things can and will happen in their lives if they let God be their light. The purpose of living for God is not to turn your headlights on high in the darkness to blind everyone who looks at you. Our objective is not control. Exercising our control and producing faith in the light are not the same thing. Our object is to provide hope in darkness. We are to reveal hope, not compound despair.

Falling Through the Cracks

Posted by David on under Sermons

Cracks are commonly considered bad things. In most situations cracks are undesirable. The kind of cracks I am referring to are breaks. A crack appears when something breaks but does not separate. Because the crack is visible, the break is obvious. The crack reveals the break even though there is little separation.

Again, we commonly consider cracks to be bad. “I can give you a real good price on this new truck. There is a crack in the front axial.” “The price on this house is a real steal. The reason the price is so low is the foundation is cracked.” “I will sell you this dozen of eggs for a quarter. Six of the eggs are cracked.”

Do you personally want any of these things? A cracked tooth? A cracked bone (called a fracture)? A cracked pair of eye glasses? A camera with a cracked lens? A cracked windshield? A cracked window? Cracked skin? Cracked fingernails?

Because this kind of crack is associated with the undesirable, we have developed a phrase everyone understands. The phrase is “falling through the cracks.” When a person, a thing, or a situation “falls through the cracks,” it is never good. To say something “fell through the cracks” never refers to a desirable situation. The ideal is for nothing to ever “fall through the cracks.”

1. Each of the four gospels acknowledges that Jesus spent much of his ministry spiritually rescuing people “who fell through the cracks.”
   1. Jesus commonly ministered to people who “fell through the cracks”; the list is astonishing.
      1. “What do you mean by ‘people who fell through the cracks’?”
         1. I mean people who were rejected.
         2. I mean people who “did not fit” in their religious structure of that day.
         3. Jesus taught, cared for, and healed people for whom there was no help and no hope in Israel’s first century establishment.
      2. “What are some examples?”
         1. These lists are not comprehensive and do not note the many occasions when Jesus helped numbers of people. Several of the examples are included in the accounts of more than one gospel.
         2. Matthew:
            1. The man with leprosy (8:1)
            2. The centurion and his servant (8:5)
            3. The two men with demons (8:28)
            4. Matthew, the tax collector (9:9)
            5. A gathering of tax collectors and sinners (9:10)
            6. The woman who had a hemorrhage for 12 years (9:20)
            7. The blind man (9:27)
            8. The demon possessed man who could not speak (9:32)
            9. The demon possessed man who was blind and speechless (12:22)
            10. The Canaanite woman’s daughter (15:22)
            11. The demon possessed child (17:15)
         3. Mark:
            1. The man with an unclean spirit in 1:23, and another in 5:2
            2. The man with a withered hand (3:1)
            3. The blind man (10:46)
         4. Luke:
            1. The paralyzed man (5:18)
            2. The man from Nain who was raised from the dead (7:14,15)
            3. The sexually immoral woman (7:37)
            4. Mary Magdalene (8:2)
            5. The woman who was bent double (13:11)
            6. Zaccheus (19:2)
         5. John:
            1. The Samaritan woman (4)
            2. The man who had been sick for 38 years (5:5)
            3. The man born blind (9:1)

   2. Why did these people “fall through the cracks”?
      1. That is both an interesting question and a very worthwhile question.
      2. Jesus was God’s son.
         1. He perfectly understood God’s will and God’s purposes.
         2. Nothing Jesus said or did misrepresented God.
         3. Jesus said these people should not spiritually “fall through the cracks.”
         4. Jesus revealed that God cared as much about these people as God cared about anyone else.
      3. Yet, socially and spiritually, the entire religious system allowed these people to “fall through the cracks.”
         1. Israel’s religious system made the cracks.
         2. Not only did they not meet these people’s needs, but they also taught God willed for these people to be rejected.
         3. Religiously, there was no place for them in their system of religion.
      4. That was the basic problem: for a long time the religious leaders took all of God’s teachings and laws and produced a system.
         1. God did not create the “cracks”; their system created the “cracks.”
         2. Their system said God did not want certain kinds of people.
         3. Their system said God rejected certain kinds of people.
         4. Something was basically wrong with the system they created from God’s teachings and laws.
      5. Jesus, not the system, perfectly represented God.
         1. Jesus said God did not reject those people.
         2. Jesus in his actions and his teachings said God willed to unburden those people and give them hope.
         3. Jesus said those people were encouraged to come to God; God would welcome them.
         4. Jesus said Israel’s system misrepresented God’s priorities in His law.
         5. Jesus said God’s two greatest (most important) commandments were:
            Matthew 22:37-40 “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
         6. The system said, “Love had nothing to do with God’s law; it was basically a matter of obedience, not love.”
         7. Jesus said, “Love for God and your fellowman is the foundation of the entire law. God’s law depends on love.”

2. They created the problem, and we reproduce the same problem when we replace love obedience with system loyalty.
   1. System loyalty measures everything with check lists.
      1. Consider a common check list in Jesus’ day in Israel:
         1. “Eat the right foods.” Check
         2. “Do the right things on the Sabbath day.” Check
         3. “Keep the religious ceremony of hand washing before you eat.” Check
         4. “Pray three times a day.” Check
         5. “Offer the right sacrifices.” Check
         6. “Keep the Passover.” Check
      2. A devout Jew could check everything on that list without any faith, without any love for God, and without any love for people.
      3. Consider one of our common check lists today:
         1. “Attend church on Sunday.” Check
         2. “Take communion.” Check
         3. “Sing a cappella.” Check
         4. “Give.” Check
         5. Then comes a long list of “don’ts”-drunkenness, adultery, lying, stealing, etc. Check
      4. A devout Christian can check everything on the list without faith, without love for God, and without love for people.

   2. When we use God’s teachings to create check lists, people “fall through the cracks.”
      1. When someone is troubled, tell him or her that he or she is not following the check list.
         1. Tell him or her, “Christians don’t have those kinds of troubles.”
         2. Tell him or her, “Get with the system and follow the check lists.”
         3. Result: troubled people “fall through the cracks.”
      2. When someone is burdened, tell him or her that he or she is not following the check list.
         1. Tell him or her, “Christians don’t have burdens like that.”
         2. Tell him or her, “Get with the system and follow the check list.”
         3. Result: burdened people “fall through the cracks.”
      3. When someone is struggling, tell him or her that he or she is not following the check list.
         1. Tell him or her, “Christians don’t struggle like that.”
         2. Tell him or her, “Get with the system and follow the check list.”
         3. Result: struggling people “fall through the cracks.”
      4. Systems that rely on check lists create cracks.
      5. God’s love and forgiveness have no cracks; for those who repent, there are not cracks to fall through.

   3. Godliness cannot be reduced to a system that uses check lists to measure spirituality.
      1. Why? Because godliness is based on a heart relationship with a Savior.
      2. Love cannot be reduced to a system with a check list.
      3. Repentance cannot be reduced to a system with a check list.
      4. Spiritual life cannot be reduced to a system with a check list.
      5. Spiritual integrity cannot be reduced to a system with a check list.
      6. The spiritual kingdom of God cannot be reduced to a system with a check list.
      7. Trusting God cannot be reduced to a system with a check list.
      8. God’s love that gave His son on a cross cannot be reduced to a system with a check list.
      9. Jesus’ love that let him die for each of us to be our Savior cannot be reduced to a system with a check list.

   4. We must not reduce loving God to nothing more than a responsibility.
      1. Loving God must produce a living relationship with God.
      2. Certainly relationships based on love are responsible relationships.
      3. But loving relationships go far beyond just being responsible.
      4. Obedience arising from love always will exceed obedience arising from necessity–every time in every way.

A couple has been married about three months. Every single day the wife becomes more and more exasperated. One evening about 7 p.m. she said, “Okay, big man, we have to talk. Sit down and listen to me, and hear me well! I thought you would catch on. But no-o-o-o-o! Nothing is changing around here. I am going to make you a check list, and, if you love me, you will follow that list every single day. You WILL take the garbage out. You WILL pick up your dirty clothes. You WILL take your shoes off when you come in the house. You WILL hang up your towels. You WILL lift the seat, and you WILL lower the seat. You WILL keep me informed concerning your whereabouts at all times. And you WILL do everything else on this list. If you do not, I WILL be out of here.”

When a marriage is reduced to a system of conduct and its check list, that marriage will die. The man and woman may continue to live in the same house under the same roof, but the marriage will die. Marriage must be responsible, but love must be the foundation of the relationship.

When spiritual existence is reduced to a system and its check list, Christianity will die in that person’s life. He or she may continue to come to church and go through what is regarded as the necessary motions, but relationship with God and Jesus Christ will die. Christian existence must be responsible, but love must be the foundation of the relationship.

When you love God, when in love you responsibly maintain a relationship through repentance, you will never “fall through the cracks”–there will be no cracks.

Authority and Spirituality: The Bonding

Posted by David on June 3, 2001 under Sermons

In all sectors of life, discovering and respecting balance is extremely important. That truth can be illustrated in so many ways. Consider just one. For most of us, our morning routine includes starting and driving a car or truck. Most of us take for granted starting and driving our vehicles. Most of us use the engine’s power without a thought. We just count on the power being there. It will “happen” without thought or understanding.

The power that moves most cars happens because of an explosion. For that explosion to occur, the engine must have the proper balance between gasoline and oxygen. Without a balance of gasoline and oxygen, that vehicle with its sleek interior, CD player, fine tires, and great looks will sit motionless as if it were a rock. If the explosion occurs (we call it combustion) within the walls of the cylinders in just the right sequence, the pistons move. The moving pistons turn the drive shaft. The turning drive shaft moves the wheels. And off we go. But nothing happens unless the gasoline and oxygen are balanced.

Take the same gasoline and the same oxygen, put them in a gasoline container, drop a lighted match in the container. You have the same explosion, but the explosion produces a destructive fire.

Take the same gasoline and the same oxygen, and ignite them at the refinery. You have the same explosion, but the explosion produces an enormous disaster.

The combustion in the car engine, the fire in the gasoline container, and the refinery explosion all produce power if you have the right balance of gasoline and oxygen. Only the engine uses that power productively.

1. In Romans 1:16,17, Paul wrote to Christians in Rome:
   For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”
   1. The gospel is the power source that fuels salvation.
      1. The gospel is:
         1. The good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
         2. The good news that God atoned for our sins and can redeem us from evil through Jesus’ blood in Jesus’ death.
         3. The good news that God demonstrated His power to raise us from the dead by raising Jesus from the dead.
      2. When a person understands the power in that good news and trusts that power by responding to God who gave the power, he or she receives salvation.
      3. When a person either refuses to understand the power of the good news or rejects the power of the good news, the result is eternal condemnation.
      4. The same power can save (which is God’s desire) or destroy.

   2. In Jesus’ death, God did the righteous thing (Romans 3:24, 25).
      1. God has the right to forgive our sins because God paid the full consequences of our sins in Jesus’ death (Romans 3:26).
      2. God can atone for our sins by using Jesus’ blood to remove our sins.
      3. God can redeem us from sin, buy us back from Satan, because God allowed Jesus to be made sin on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5:21).

   3. How can I unleash the power of God in the gospel to produce the blessings and benefits of salvation in my life?
      1. I allow the power of the gospel to “explode” in my life by responding to God with a proper balance.
      2. Is authority a part of that balance? Absolutely!
      3. Is authority the only thing necessary to produce my salvation? No.
         1. Authority looks to God alone for guidance.
         2. Faith trusts God’s guidance.
         3. Obedience responds to God’s guidance.
         4. Spirituality devotes itself to being the godly, righteous person God saves me to become.

   4. Salvation is the result of seeking the right balance between authority and spirituality.
      1. Anytime I use authority to oppose spirituality, I am ignoring God’s balance.
      2. Anytime I use spirituality to oppose authority, I am ignoring God’s balance.
      3. If I want salvation in Christ, I want to trust Jesus’ death and resurrection, I want to obey God, I want do to God’s will.
      4. But God’s power of salvation in Christ involves more than appealing to authority.
      5. It is too easy to abuse authority by focusing on God’s words without understanding God’s meaning.
         1. It is too easy to abuse authority by ignoring the meaning of what God said.
         2. It is too easy to abuse authority by ignoring God’s message.
         3. It is too easy to abuse authority by ignoring God’s purpose.
         4. When an appeal to authority is used to oppose God’s message and God’s purpose, that authority is not God’s authority–no matter what the person claims.
      6. A proper use of God’s authority never ignores God’s message or purposes.

2. I ask you to consider a group in the New Testament who had no balance in seeking to do God’s will.
   1. This group is sobering and scary. Why?
      1. They were very religious.
      2. They made God’s authority the only issue in determining right from wrong.
      3. They were experts on the words in scripture, and could readily quote those words.

   2. But:
      1. They misunderstood God’s message and purposes.
      2. They used their misunderstanding to oppose God’s message and purposes.
      3. They appealed to authority to oppose God’s message and purposes.
      4. They rejected God’s own son, completely failed to recognize him, because he emphasized God’s message and purposes in opposition to their conclusions.
      5. One of the primary tools they used to oppose Jesus was an appeal to authority.

   3. Who were these devoutly religious people? Israel’s religious leaders; the one people who should have understood God’s authority, meaning, and purpose.

3. I call your attention to two situations in Matthew, the gospel written to Jewish people.
   1. The first is found in Matthew 12:1-8.
      1. I will paraphrase the incident; please look at these verses as I do so.
      2. Jesus and his disciples were taking a walk on the Sabbath day, and the Pharisees were following him in a desire to catch him violating authority.
      3. The disciples were hungry, so they stripped some heads of ripe grain from the tops of wheat or barley stalks and ate the grain.
      4. Promptly the Pharisees who followed accused them of violating scripture’s authority.
         1. They regarded the disciples’ reaching out along the path and stripping the grain to be a violation of one of the ten commandments.
         2. Exodus 20:8-10 commanded Israel to keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work.
            1. It was a Sabbath day, and they regarded what the disciples did as an act of work.
            2. According to their oral law, which made application of the written law, the disciples were guilty of reaping or harvesting or both.
      5. Jesus responded to their accusation.
         1. By using examples of David eating the consecrated bread and the priests offering sacrifices on the Sabbath, Jesus used the authority of scripture to challenge the basis on which they determined authority.
         2. That certainly is worthy of study and understanding, but I want you to focus on Jesus’ basic observation:
            Matthew 12:7 “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.”
            1. Jesus said, “You do not understand the meaning of God’s complete will.”
            2. He quoted Hosea 6:6 to document the truth that they did not understand God’s meaning and purposes.
            3. Jesus said in God’s priority, compassion is more important than sacrifice.
            4. Jesus said if they understood that, they would not condemn the innocent.
      6. To the Pharisees, Jesus’ statement was heresy.
      7. But, Jesus’ statement was based on a perfect understanding of God’s priorities.
      8. These Pharisees abused God’s authority because they did not understand God’s meaning.

   2. The second is found in Matthew 21:23-27.
      1. This incident occurred during the last week of Jesus’ earthly life, and we need to examine its context.
      2. The chapter begins with Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem.
         1. This is the conscious act of an Israelite king riding into the royal city.
         2. The multitude understood the meaning of what happened, and their acts and shouts were the acts and shouts of Israelite people receiving their new king.
         3. The multitude rejoiced; the religious leaders fumed.
      3. In verses 12 through 17 Jesus caused a major incident in the temple area by overturning money tables of those who exchanged currency.
         1. Those who traveled long distances were permitted to buy their sacrifices after they arrived in Jerusalem instead of bringing their own animals.
         2. But often to make a purchase, they had to turn foreign currency into local currency.
         3. That is what the money changers did–they exchanged currency (for a fee).
      4. In verse 23 Jesus came to the temple area (one of the large courtyards) to teach.
         1. Those who controlled temple activities were religious leaders in Jerusalem; they came to Jesus.
         2. They asked him two questions; consider both questions.
            1. “By what authority are you doing these things?”
            2. “Who gave you the authority to do them?”
         3. It was all a question and matter of authority.
            1. These religious leaders certainly had not given Jesus the authority.
            2. The Jerusalem Sanhedrin, the highest court in Israel, had not given him the authority.
            3. Since these religious leaders considered themselves to be God’s official authority, in no way did they regard Jesus’ actions as approved by God.
         4. Please note Jesus never answered their question.
         5. Please note that the religious people who insisted on knowing “by what authority” did not understand God’s message, did not understand God’s purpose, and did not recognize God’s Son.

Must our spiritual authority come from God? Yes! That is the point: it must be God’s authority and not our own conclusions. If it is God’s authority, it will be in balance with faith in Christ and obedience to God. If it is God’s authority, it will cause me to be a spiritual person. If it is God’s authority, I will not only understand what scripture says, but I will devote myself to understanding what it means.

When a Christian man or woman uses authority to justify ungodly attitudes or unspiritual acts, he or she is abusing God’s authority. He or she is substituting his or her own views for God’s meaning and purpose in God’s word. The objective is to be spiritual people as we live in Christ. The objective is never self-justification.